Dear Friends,

First of all I am so thankful to let you know that Win and I waved goodbye to Covid with negative tests last Sunday. As far as I know there are no members in our group who are currently affected, although I know that it can sometimes take a few extra days for the coughing altogether to go away. We have found various extra dosings to have been effective. I am presuming that the type of infection was some variant of omicron. Accordingly we shall be able to resume the usual schedule of services from Sunday the 17th July at the Clubhouse. Very many thanks for your prayers and concerns expressed for us over the time of difficulty. Let us remember to continue to pray for others we know about in sickness of any sort.

The Collect for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity is

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For whatever fundamental causes it can hardly be doubted that “the course of this world” in our time has suffered severe disruptions over a number of years: our worship too has been disrupted from time to time, but for some of us less so than for other Christian communities. This Collect is a prayer for the entire course of the world to be “peaceably ordered” by the “governance” of the Lord: and this, not altogether for the purpose of ensuring the world's own peace (which is much to be desired), but moreso that “thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness.” Underlying this thought is the fundamental connection between “this world” (or “this age”) and the joyful service of the Church, which is disrupted and made unquiet by all that disorders and disrupts the godly truths upon which all this age’s law and governance must fundamentally rest.

We have seen such fundamentally severe disruptions creep into the Western World since the Second World War that have affected the life of the Western Church negatively, and in my life in the Cayman Islands I have seen a similar pattern in course here, especially since the days of “the Islands that Time Forgot”. But wherever we are we may still pray with hearty faith the great Collect we have just been considering. What we have seen is not all that our gracious Lord has in mind for us all.

For directions about the services this Sunday the 17th July 2022, the 5th Sunday after Trinity, please see the website www.TruthWithLanguage.com .

In faith in the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, who will continue to provide guidance by the Holy Spirit to all His people.

+ Nicholas